The invention relates to a head condenser comprising a plate heat exchanger.
Head condensers are known in themselves from the state of the art, for which reason no special reference has to be made to prior publications here.
Head condensers are mounted at the head, i.e. at the end of a column. They serve to dry a gas that is leaving the column by condensing out a product, typically water, by means of the plate heat exchanger provided by the head condenser. Herein, the plate heat exchanger can be operated in cross-current, counter-current or continuous current.
A typical column that is known from the state of the art provides a flow channel formed in a column housing, wherein the column housing is mostly oriented in the vertical direction. At the one end, the flow channel provided by the column housing is supplied with a first medium and at the other end with a second medium. The two media get into direct contact while flowing in counter-current within the column.
Columns are for example typically used for the natural gas purification. In this case, the gas to be purified flows through the column from bottom to top. Water serves as purification medium that is supplied to the column at the other end. The natural gas to be purified as well as the water that serves as purification medium get into direct contact within the column, which leads to filtering out certain components of the natural gas to be purified. Herein, the natural gas to be purified flows through the vertically oriented column housing from bottom to top, whereas the water that serves as purification medium is introduced into the column from the top and thus flows through the column housing from top to bottom.
After having flown through the column, the purified gas gets into the head condenser mounted at the head of the column, in which head condenser the gas is dried by condensing out the water that has been carried along from the purification in the column.
There is a continuous endeavor to provide head condensers which have a small and compact design with simultaneously a high efficiency.
From the state of the art head condensers have been known which comprise tube bundle heat exchangers. However, these ones are comparatively inefficient, since only a reduced heat transfer per surface unit is achieved, which leads to an altogether large construction. In order to overcome this disadvantage, head condensers have furthermore become known from the state of the art, which comprise plate heat exchangers which are spiral-shaped. Such plate heat exchangers are more efficient with respect to tube bundle heat exchangers. But their construction is still comparatively compact, for which reason improvements are also in so far desired.
It is the object of the invention to propose a head condenser which is more efficient while simultaneously comprising a minimized size in comparison to the constructions known from the state of the art.